In trying to find better ways to peer inside living cells, one group of scientists did a little bit of both. They used something very old—gas-propelled microbes, one of the earliest mobile life forms on Earth—and genetically engineered them to respond to sound waves. When you ping these modified cells with ultrasound, they ping back, like a microscopic version of the singing Bluetooth trackers that help locate hidden gadgets. These locators could eventually be used to watch neurons and spot early-stage diseases....

The study looked at bacterial genetic information found in almost 12,000 stool samples and turned up 1,952 potential new species. Stack that up against the 273 species of gut bacteria currently identified and cultured in labs, and it represents a whole lot we don’t know about poop. “There’s still a lot of stuff missing,” says study author Alexandre Almeida, a postdoctoral fellow at the European Bioinformatics Institute. In other words: “a lot of these are species that haven’t yet been grown [in the lab], but we can detect them at the DNA level when we actually look at the stool samples....

While all these sound tempting, not every documentary fan has the bandwidth to watch all day, even if it means getting paid for it. If that’s your case, an alternative is to score a MagellanTV subscription instead, and luckily, you can get a 1-year subscription on sale for a limited time. If you’re not too familiar with MagellanTV, it’s basically Netflix for quality documentaries. It doesn’t merely offer true crime flicks (although they have an excellent selection of shocking mysteries), but it also boasts an impressive collection of shows about war, ancient history, science and technology, crime, and culture....

Lenovo 11E 11.6″ Touchscreen Chromebook 16GB SSD – Black (Refurbished) This affordable Chromebook is fast and powerful enough to be its own little workhorse. The 16GB SSD can store a solid menu of apps, and this model comes with 4 ports to connect auxiliary storage, screen extensions, or other devices. The Lenovo 11E 11.6″ Touchscreen Chromebook 16GB SSD – Black (Refurbished) is on sale for $89, but normally it’s $170....

But then again, it also depends on what you actually choose to consume. There’s a difference between watching a mind-numbing reality show vs. a series that feeds you information that stimulates your brain. If you’re going to binge shows, you might as well inject some variety into your selections to make your watching experience more meaningful and educational. The Smart Bundle can help you on that front by giving you access to Curiosity Stream, SOMM TV, Tastemade, Topic, Nebula, and One Day University....

Italy’s current heat wave is being caused by “Lucifer”—a large-scale weather phenomenon known as an anticyclone—that’s moving up from Africa and pushing warm air across the Italian peninsula. An anticyclone is caused by winds circling around a high pressure center of sinking air, sometimes spread across thousands of miles. Anticyclones move in the opposite direction of their regular cyclone counterparts, which rotate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere....

Consider a future where a robot operates autonomously, but an appendage becomes injured, says Robert Shepherd, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Cornell University. “It’s going to continue moving its limb and thinking its hand or foot is going to be in one position, when it’s actually going to be in a different position,” he says. “We need skins, or internal neural-like sensors, to communicate this information three-dimensionally and continuously, to the robot’s controller....

Currently a high school senior in California, Lewis-Weber has just published a paper in the journal New Space with what he thinks could be the solution to the upcoming energy crisis: putting self-replicating solar panels in space. These solar panels would to build copies of themselves, autonomously, on the surface of the moon. Then they would enter Earth’s orbit, collect the sun’s energy, and wirelessly beam it to the ground....

In 2003, researchers Didier Raoult and Bernard La Scola of Aix-Marseille University in France discovered something strange lurking in amoebas: giant viruses, visible under a typical microscope, and about four times larger than the ones we often see infecting human cells. Collectively they’re called mimiviruses because they appear to mimic bacteria. In the intervening years, these researchers have discovered 150 different types of these large viruses, according to Stat News, such as megaviruses and pandoraviruses....

On paper, the Xperia 1 Mark II is undeniably a flagship phone. It uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 processor and 5G hardware. If you’re planning on paying attention to the slew of smartphone announcements happening this week (when Mobile World Congress was supposed to take place), you should get used to hearing that name. It’s the same setup Samsung announced for its Galaxy S20 flagship just last week. At some point, the latest Qualcomm chip becomes standard issue for high-end phones and doesn’t give any one device a chance to stand out when it comes to processing power....

Soft robotics has “really come a long way over the past decade,” says study first author Daniel Preston. “What’s really been missing is the ability to control things with a completely soft computation,” he says. Autonomous soft robots would be able to take some of the benefits of squishy mechanoids—being relatively simple, durable, and long-lasting, as well as interacting safely with humans due to their soft touch—much farther. Completely soft robots do already exist, and their movement is powered by pressurized liquid moving through tiny channels, in a process called microfluidics....

Any chef would agree that cooking is basically applied science and, unless you are an actual scientist working from home, your kitchen is the closest thing you’ve got to a lab. Following a recipe is essentially the same as running an experiment, and the best part is that you get to eat the delicious result. This project is no exception. Making rock candy is easy—it only requires sugar, water, and patience....

Here’s the thing: The paper hardly mentions drones. It just sets out rules for a targeted killing policy and lists “pilotless aircraft or so-called smart bombs” as possible tools for carrying out those killings. The policy itself is not technology-specific. Yet somehow drones have become shorthand for targeted killing. Why? While it’s true that drones are the best-known tool for carrying out targeted strikes, they are only one of many methods by which the United States attacks individual terrorists from afar....

Here’s a quick look at what you’ll find in this week’s episode Techathlon Decathlon All the tech news you need to know from last week broken down into 10 fun trivia questions. This week’s topics include a serious computer vulnerability with a scary name, Alexa’s new mode that protects your house, and Netflix’s foray into gaming. Tech Time Machine: 1997 Back in 1997, the Tamagotchi was the hottest toy with kids—and the scourge of elementary schools everywhere....

The Player Dutch defender Taeke Taekema is known for his ability to curve shots off of set plays. He even has his own piece of equipment to help amplify his talents and he’s apparently not bad looking either. Bend it like Beckham? How about twist it like Taekema. The legend of Taekema was cemented following the European Championship in 2007 where he scored 16 goals in the tournament (apparently that’s good)....

Best for security: eufy Floodlight Security CameraBest for property managers: GLORIOUS-LITE FloodlightBest for non-electricians: Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight CameraBest for energy-conscious homeowners: LEPOWER Solar Security LightsBest for starter homes: Lithonia Outdoor Floodlight The best floodlights: Our picks How do you choose the best floodlight for your home? Look for the features you want, but stay open to some features you didn’t even know existed. These lights can do much more than turn on and off....

Just another plastic puck with some blinking lights, a mesh wifi station may not look that different from the traditionally cumbersome models. It’s so unassuming, you may wonder if it’s worth the extra investment. You’ll quickly find, however, that mesh wifi can solve many of the most common problems. Using multiple nodes, wireless mesh networks let you space access points throughout your house (and yard, if you like), but they don’t act independently....

Looking for the complete list of 100 winners? Check it out here. Grand Award Winner: A smarter system for creating flight plans Take a flight between any two airports, and a dispatcher at the airline also serves a key purpose: They decide in advance what route the aircraft will take along the way, filing a flight plan with the FAA before takeoff. These humans working on the ground must consider variables like weather, restricted military airspace, and more....

To make the Hyper-Sub sink without sacrificing surface speed, Marion and his team—Gene Mock, a former construction contractor, and Scott Shamblin, an engineer—rethought the ratio of ballast to cabin volume. The ballast systems in most submarines can displace only about 20 percent of the cabin’s volume, but the Hyper-Sub’s ballast chambers double the volume of the cabin. The boat uses a high-pressure pumping system to rapidly fill these chambers with water or air, quickly changing its weight and buoyancy and allowing it to submerge or surface in less than a minute....